Hector Santiago is tempted to knock on Mike Scioscia’s door and ask for the ball back, quick as he gave the ball to his manager walking off the mound after his last start.

“You kind of want to go into the office and say, ‘I want to start,’” Santiago said, “but at the same time you don’t want to disrespect them.”

The Angels pitcher is optimistic that success as a reliever can translate into a return to the starting rotation at some point. Realistically, barring an injury to the current starting five, that might not happen for a while.

Santiago was in the Angel Stadium bullpen prior to Friday’s game for a “touch and feel” session, a brisk outing designed to help him find his release point. As much as his feel for the ball, Santiago simply needed to get some work in. He hadn’t appeared in a game since last Sunday.

“Right now I think that Hector is still searching for some things,” Scioscia said. “He is comfortable out of the pen because he’s done it before. Hopefully, he’s going to get enough work to find a role. He’s got a good arm. He needs to get back to where he’s throwing the ball well.”

In his first season with the Angels, Santiago has an 0-6 record and a 5.09 earned-run average. Compared with a year ago, when he pitched for the Chicago White Sox, he’s missing fewer bats and missing the strike zone more. That applies to practically all of his pitches.

By moving to the bullpen, Santiago returns to where his major-league career began. In Chicago, he closed, spotted up against left-handed hitters, pitched long relief and middle relief.

“Any role you can imagine in the bullpen,” Santiago said, “I’ve done it.”

That’s partly why Scioscia doesn’t have a defined role for Santiago right now: He doesn’t need one.

“Hector is going to provide some length, but also can come in as a situational lefty,” Scioscia said. “It just depends on how the game unfolds, to how he’ll be used.”

Freese to rehab

David Freese is scheduled to begin a rehabilitation assignment with Triple-A Salt Lake today.

The third baseman said Friday that “I could play right now,” but the Angels will ease him into the assignment, starting him at designated hitter tonight before letting him play the field.

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“The last thing we’re doing is throwing at full speed,” he said. “My throws were better today. … The goal is to show them I can play the field.”

Freese said that the pain in the fractured middle finger in his right hand isn’t gone, and won’t be completely gone for a while.

“It’s just a matter of tolerance,” he said.

Freese will join Kole Calhoun, who went 2 for 3 with a double, single and flyout in his first rehab game with Triple-A Salt Lake on Friday. Calhoun, who is recovering from an ankle injury, played five innings in the field as scheduled.

Both players are expected to return to the Angels early next week.

Birth of the ‘Rally cat’?

Fans attending Thursday and Friday’s games noticed an addition to the stable of animals appearing on the Angel Stadium video board: A cat.

Cameraman Sam Song spotted the cat early in Thursday’s game between the Angels and Rays, meandering beyond the outfield wall. Peter Bull, the Angels’ director of entertainment, decided to save Song’s footage of the cat and its trance-like glare for later in the game.

The Angels already have a furry animal mascot -- the Rally Monkey -- that’s been in rotation on the video board in some form since 2000. Bull decided to intersperse clips of the monkey and the cat, and the combination worked. The Angels scored four runs in the bottom of the ninth inning to erase a 5-2 deficit, including a three-run home run by Mike Trout to win the game.

Later that night, the cat inspired a Twitter hashtag (#RallyCat) and even a T-shirt. The harlequin feline reappeared on the video board Friday.

Notable

Josh Hamilton (thumb ligament surgery) took live batting practice on the field for the second straight day without pain. … Pitcher Dane De La Rosa was given a second straight day of rest since receiving a cortisone shot in his inflamed right shoulder. Scioscia expects De La Rosa to throw a bullpen session in a couple days. … Pitcher Sean Burnett (elbow) is “close” to making his first rehabilitation appearance for Double-A Arkansas, Scioscia said. … Angels infielder Luis Jimenez beat Rays pitcher David Price in a cow-milking contest on the field prior to the game.